The inside tale of Sequoia’s presentation to its portfolio companies: Here’s the juciest part

If you have a product, reduce expenses around it and boost sales. If the product is ready, cut the number of engineers.

- Doug Leone

Cold cold world out there. But dusting off my memory tomes of 2002 - not unexpected. Hundreds of engineers were laid off then.. really good ones. Quite a few of whom would be on the side of the axe this side (as opposed to the chopping block).

Well what’s the key to this game of musical chairs or - if we allude to ancient Indian mythos - Chakravyuha.

The solution - again we allude to the Historical solution to the Chakravyuha. It is as applicable to  you , as it is to your boss .. and  your CEO.

You just dont want to know about it.

Coming out of the maze means killing the minions as opposed to killing the generals (who needs to be preserved). From the top of the pyramid down, they will try to cut a larger chunk of the pyramid below them to preserve themselves.

Unfortunately, it works most of the time.

Quod Erat Demonstrandum